Talks a good game (I'm sure I'm not the only person to notice he loves a good Borussia Dortmund reference in almost every story), but has there really been any evidence that he can manage a good game whilst he has been here?
Yesterday for example, in a game that he himself dubbed as a must win game at home against a team who were 4th from bottom in the table, why was he playing 5 defenders and 1 man up front?
Injuries have obviously left us short in the striker department, but we still had Kayden Jackson on the bench (who never made it on) and instead we opted for Quaner on his own. Not to say he has looked terrible, but I am still none the wiser as to exactly what position Quaner is really best suited to playing. He is not an out and out centre forward and would say he has looked marginally best suited to playing as a wide forward, to play him as a lone striker seemed pretty bizarre. The plan to have 5 defenders was essentially to allow Bree and Kenlock to get forward. Both were poor, and too often Nolan and Judge were drifting out wide (despite them being primarily central midfielders). With our lack of aerial presence and lack of numbers making runs into the box, why was the primary plan to get the ball out wide and stick it in the box from there? It was painfully ineffective all afternoon, with the exception of Edwards' goal which was moreso down to the persistence of Skuse and a fortunate deflection.
Most weeks have often panned out the same way. Tactics and systems have not been suited for the personel we have. Results are not too dissimilar to what Hurst's were, and I've seen little if any improvement in the football under Lambert so far (even if there has been a bit more fight shown).
The reality is that Lambert has played the fans so far and bought himself extra time through consistently good PR, rather than noticeable improvement to the football. Has there really genuinely been a great improvement? Has he really shown proof that he can manage games effectively? 2 wins in 20 suggests not.
There was never going to be a silver bullet with the squad he inherited, but that doesn't make him the right man going forward and the jury should very much still be out. I have several concerns, more so after yesterday. The set up for the game looked completely wrong from minute one.
So far, Lambert seems to have built up a good rapport with fans because:
- He got sent off at Norwich
- He wrote an open letter to fans
- Has met some fans and ex players for a coffee
- Paid for a coach load of fans for an away game
I want to like Lambert because we are winning games or at least playing good football that makes sense. So far, I've not been able to. It will be a big summer for him, without question. There will be a lot of personel changes and he will get a great opportunity to build his own team to something resembling how he wants it to look. I'm not convinced from what I've seen so far that he will get it right, but we can only hope there's a plan. |  |
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